Hemoptysis: bronchoscopic-computed tomographic correlation in ninety eight cases

Objective: To retrospectively evaluate the efficiency of the fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) examination com-pared to computed tomography (CT) in the evaluation of patients with hemoptysis. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 98 patients who underwent FOB and CT for hemoptysis. There were 78 male and 20 female. The mean age was 46 years with a range from 18 to 80 years Results: Hemoptysis was attributed bronchiectasis in 19 (19.4%) cases, bronchogenic carcinoma in 18 (18.3%) cases, bronchitis in 23 (23.4%) cases, tuberculosis in 7 (7%) cases, cryptogenic causes in 28 (28.5) cases and miscellanous causes in 3 (3%) cases (a perforated hydatid cyst, a mitral stenosis and an intrabronchial foreign body). Endobronchial abnormalities were seen on CT but not at FOB in 4 of the 18 patients with malignancy. In con-trast endobronchial abnormalities were identified at FOB but not seen by CT in 3 patients. CT and FOB agreed on only 11 of these 18 patients. Conclusion: FOB can be used for patients with hemop-tysis with reduced cost compared to CT and frequently may lead to a precise histologic diagnosis and subse-quent early surgical management. But both FOB and CT should be used for a complete diagnosis and appropriate therapy planning in most patients with hemoptysis. Key words: Hemoptysis, computed  tomography, fiberoptic broncoscopy.